Antiono Rüdiger: “Real Madrid, that’s the end of the line” – Talks about the home European Championship

Contract in Madrid until 2026

Antonio Rüdiger sees himself as having reached the peak of his creativity. The 30-year-old central defender is enjoying the current moment “because I simply believe that I have arrived at the Olympus of football. “Real Madrid, that’s the end of the line, after that you can only go down,” said the German international in a “Kicker” interview.

“I was never afraid to take a bigger step. But I could never have imagined that I would be here one day,” revealed Rüdiger. The Berlin native moved to the “Royals” on a free transfer in 2022 after five years at Chelsea. This makes him one of the twelve most valuable professionals to date who have completed a transfer for free.

Rüdiger doesn’t want to look too far into his future yet. “I don’t know what’s next. All I know is that my contract here runs for two more years (until 2026; editor). “I let everything happen to me,” said Rüdiger, who has played 83 competitive games since arriving in Madrid and scored five goals in these. The right-footer recorded the highest market value of his career at Chelsea in the summer of 2019 at 50 million euros – today Rüdiger is valued at 25 million.

Antonio Rüdiger about the home European Championship and the DFB team: “Letting myself get dragged down”

The defensive man approaches the topic of the national team positively with a view to the home European Championship in 2024. “I know for a fact that we will be prepared and throw everything into it,” said Rüdiger, despite the sobering international matches against Turkey and Austria, which did not exactly boost hopes of a successful tournament. “Nevertheless, it is my firm belief, and besides: Do I have any other choice? All of us, including us players, are in this and have to find a way out of the crisis.”

From his point of view, fun needs to be brought back so that the DFB team can achieve positive results again: “I didn’t have any fun either and instead let myself get dragged down, which didn’t happen often in my career. Of course this shouldn’t happen to me, but it happened. I want to make amends and know what needs to be improved. It cannot be the case that players who are supposed to take the lead then have a kink.” Rüdiger has appeared 66 times for the German national team and took part in two World Cups (2018, 2022) and one European Championship (2020).

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